Statistically, if you ride a decrepit old donkey or mule being led by a small bedouin boy enough times, you will end up on a donkey or mule who stumbles and you will fall, perhaps to your death.
The first time my mule stumbled, I felt a twinge of worry. By the fifth time, I was in full-blown panic mode. About 4/5ths of the way up the mountain, he suddenly decided he'd had enough and started bucking. "This is it" I thought. "This is how I die." Then I was landing and by some miracle, my head didn't hit a rock and split open, all of my bones stayed intact, I did not even tear any clothes.
I got up and shakily paid the mule wrangler his 5 JD (why, when his mule almost killed me?!). Then I hiked the rest of the way up to the High Place of Sacrifice and Sarah and I continued on our journey.
Later on, at the Monastery, the donkey/mule race sent a representative to apologize and express their love to me.
We saw everything and got done in time to drive to Aqaba for a sunset swim. On the way back to Amman, I got increasingly tired. When a whole flock of six-inch-high AOL men came running out on the road around the car, I turned the wheel over to Sarah. She promptly got pulled over but luckily he spoke no English and so quickly sent us on our merry way.
I ended up with a giant bruise on my bottom, a small but painful bruise on my left forearm and another small bruise by my right elbow. Three days later, I discovered another huge bruise on the back of my left knee. I'd love to see a video of the fall, to figure out how that bruising pattern was formed.
On this, my eighth (or ninth - I'm not quite sure) trip to Petra, I finally hit my statistical ceiling. And boy do I have the bruises to prove it.
You see, it started out innocently enough. Sarah and I drove down to Wadi Musa, paid our entrance fees and started down through the Siq. We took pictures of tombs and rock formations. We did some awesome air kicks. We ran into President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (and forgot to take a picture with him in our awe at his shining teeth).
truly awesome air kick
camel sprawl
Then we realized that we had a lot to see and very little time in which to see it. So we decided to maximize our time and minimize our effort by taking an "air conditioned taxi" aka donkey up to the High Place of Sacrifice and to the Monastery.
it was the best of times
The first time my mule stumbled, I felt a twinge of worry. By the fifth time, I was in full-blown panic mode. About 4/5ths of the way up the mountain, he suddenly decided he'd had enough and started bucking. "This is it" I thought. "This is how I die." Then I was landing and by some miracle, my head didn't hit a rock and split open, all of my bones stayed intact, I did not even tear any clothes.
it was the worst of times
I got up and shakily paid the mule wrangler his 5 JD (why, when his mule almost killed me?!). Then I hiked the rest of the way up to the High Place of Sacrifice and Sarah and I continued on our journey.
"I fell off my mule!"
god-blocks at the High Place of Sacrifice
the Monastery
after spending an inordinate amount of time scratching his head...
this donkey wandered over and expressed his apologies and sincere love
by refusing to leave my side
We saw everything and got done in time to drive to Aqaba for a sunset swim. On the way back to Amman, I got increasingly tired. When a whole flock of six-inch-high AOL men came running out on the road around the car, I turned the wheel over to Sarah. She promptly got pulled over but luckily he spoke no English and so quickly sent us on our merry way.
I ended up with a giant bruise on my bottom, a small but painful bruise on my left forearm and another small bruise by my right elbow. Three days later, I discovered another huge bruise on the back of my left knee. I'd love to see a video of the fall, to figure out how that bruising pattern was formed.
2 comments:
I'm pretty sure that there is some ancient law that states when a donkey bucks you off...that person has the right to eat him.
Which part of your body is shown in the carefully screened picture? My donkey took off running with me screaming at the crowds to move out of the way. OSHA should do something about those poor, overworked animals. Glad you survived.
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